Morrisons sales surge amid growing grocery market share

Morrisons sales jumped last year as the supermarket said it took market share from competitors and grew its loyalty card scheme.

The company said like-for-like sales rose 4.1% in the year ending October 27, while earnings jumped to £835 million from £751 million in the previous 12 months.

The annual results did not cover the key Christmas trading period, when Morrisons suffered IT issues, forcing it to cut the price of items including turkeys and Champagne for some customers.

But the supermarket did show its best quarter since 2021 for the three months to October 27, when sales rose 4.9% compared to the previous year.

Morrisons, which has its headquarters in Bradford, West Yorkshire, and employs more than 100,000 people across the UK, has been owned by US private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice since 2021.

Chief executive Rami Baitieh said: “This has been a year of urgent reinvigoration and positive progress for Morrisons.

“Customer transactions increased, market share grew from Q2 and we saw positive switching from our competitors.

“The improvements across the business have resulted in better availability in our stores, sharper prices, more effective promotions and a strong and growing loyalty scheme.”

It comes after Morrisons said it would axe more than 200 jobs as part of a cost-cutting plan, joining Sainsbury’s in reducing headcount in the months after the October Budget.

The move followed Mr Baitieh warning that supermarkets faced an “avalanche of costs” after Chancellor Rachel Reeves increased taxes for employers.

Morrisons was one of more than 70 businesses, including Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s, that told Ms Reeves in an open letter that the changes announced in the Budget mean price rises are a “certainty”.